Toddler breaks ‘King’s Speech’ Oscar

The 15-month-old daughter of one of the producers lost her grip on the statue. Now she is too scared to go near it.

In a video screen grab, the 15-month-old Lara Egan, daughter of The King’s Speech co-producer Simon Egan, shown seconds before losing her grip and dropping her father's Oscar.

By:Jenni DunningToronto Star, Published on Mon Mar 07 2011

If there was an award for the cutest person to break an Academy Award, it would go to 15-month-old Lara Egan.

The daughter of Simon Egan, co-producer of the four-time Oscar winning The King’s Speech, promptly lost her grip on the statue while posing with it for photos.

Despite a video showing a woman rushing to grab it, the 34.3-centimetre-long prize suffered dents and some of its gold plating scratched off.

The youngster, with tousled brown hair and dressed in a pink sweatsuit, was holding the Oscar at a party the morning after the Feb. 27 ceremony.

It had been handed to her by the grandson of Lionel Logue, the speech therapist portrayed by Geoffrey Rush in the film.

Instead of the award landing on nearby grass, it slid onto concrete, making a terrible scraping sound.

“Like everyone else, I was celebrating off in one corner . . . when I saw my daughter looking very cute with the Oscar,” Simon Egan told The Telegraph. “And then I saw that horrific moment where the statue just fell. The horror was evident on everyone’s face.

“My first thought was, ‘Oh, what is that going to look like on the mantelpiece’?”

Lara Egan had no idea what she had done and carried on eating chocolate and having fun. Now, however, she is too scared to go near the statue, he added.

So, what happened to the Oscar?

Egan contacted the Academy Awards, which traded him for a brand new award.

“I was stunned by the speed at which The Academy responded. I had no idea that they had an ‘Oscar Hospital’ on standby,” Egan told The Telegraph.

“In a funny way I was surprised not to see other sheepish people in there with their damaged Oscars, sitting there nursing tears.”

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